List of lawsuits

Every patent is a legal justification to go to court, costing time, money, and legal resources. For the problems causes by software patents, they represent only a very small portion. More serious problems include the way they block compatibility, block development, create patent taxes, and the legal and licensing costs they generate through threats which don't go to court.

Contents

Picking a year to associate with case is usually difficult since they drag on for years and there can be appeals, changes of venue, and new defendants added. The year mentioned in the names of lawsuit articles refers to the year when the case first hit the news.

The following are articles law suits filed, court cases, and some threats made public. The large majority of software patent litigation takes place in the USA. To avoid repetition, only the exceptions to that rule will carry a note of which country they took place in. For a more descriptive look at the rulings in the USA, see case law in the USA.